About SomaFMsomafm.com/epk.pdf · includes work at radio stations in the Los Angeles area, developing so " ware for broadcasters, mul - timedia, and founding a company to put radio

listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative internet radio broadcasting from San Francisco

About SomaFM

SomaFM is a listener-supported, commercial-free internet radio station. Launched in February 2000 from a warehouse in San Francisco, we started with just one channel, playing “ambient” music, and developed a small but dedicated audience. By 2001, we’d increased the number of channels to seven. Our audience was small by broadcast standards – our AQH ratings were under a few hundred. Interest in our station continued to grow and we now have over 16 channels – all focusing on niche genres rarely if ever heard on commercial radio.

!anks to the hard work of our dedicated music directors and the generous support of our listen-ers, our high-quality MP3 and aacPlus internet broadcasts are now enjoyed by people all around the world. With over 5 million “listener hours” a month, SomaFM is one of the larger independent in-ternet-only broadcasters. Groove Salad, our most popular ambient/chill channel is the most listened to “chill out” station on the internet, with over 600,000 listener hours a week. At any given time, our station has between 5500 and 13,000 listeners, with an AQH of 7500. We have over 500,000 unique listeners a month.

SomaFM plays music for a huge, previously ignored audience. Over-the-air commercial radio, now dominated by just a few corporations, plays formats geared towards mass appeal. With limited play lists, and limited genres, they seek to reach the most people with the least e"ort and risk. !is model assumes an unsophisticated and captive listener. Today’s listeners are neither. !e real listener has internet access, wildly eclectic taste, and is eager to discover new music. SomaFM’s stations, playing thousands of songs, with new songs constantly being added, are the antidote to mainstream radio boredom.

It is not simply the number of songs that makes our stations work. With record stores and the inter-net providing access to an almost unlimited amount of music, anyone can have a huge song collec-tion. What makes our stations successfull is the passion of the music directors. !ey love music. !ey have collected thousands of albums and CDs, and most importantly, culled through them to #nd the best songs. Finally, they choose amongst those great songs to #nd those that work together to create a strong station play list. Too many internet stations are simply “data dumps”– all the top songs from an era (the same old songs we’ve heard a thousand times), or every song from an era (all the same songs plus the worst songs by the same artists). !ere are no shortcuts to #nding great music and creating compelling presentation.


Another factor in the success of SomaFM is the broad range of artists we have access to. In addi-tion to famous names and labels, we play music from small record labels and unsigned artists, out of print pieces, and rare unpublished recordings. We literally search the world for great music, and artists from everywhere send us their work for consideration. A great song from a local unsigned band or artist has no chance of being heard on a big over the air station, but we play hundreds of these tracks.

Finally, SomaFM is a success because of our dedication. Not only to great music, but to the infra-structure that allows it to sound great. Too many internet “radio stations” load up a bunch of song #les onto a server and send a playlist to the listeners media player to playback in sequence. !is has given internet radio a reputation for having a poor “quality of presentation”. SomaFM understands that music needs to $ow together, audio levels need to stay consistent, and the tone of tracks can’t vary too much from song to song. !at is why we use real broadcast automation systems that pro-duce tight and smooth segues, Optimod audio processing, and high-quality audio encoders. You can easily hear the di"erence.

SomaFM is thriving. We will continue to work hard to #nd great new and overlooked artists and genres for our listeners. We will continue to investigate and deploy new technologies for broadcast-ing. Most importantly, we will continue because we love the music and our audience can tell.


Staff

Rusty HodgeGeneral Manager and Program Director

Rusty Hodge is the founder, general manager and program director for SomaFM. His !rst radio station was a carrier current AM he operated during high school. Seeking a wider audience he started producing daily programs and making them

available over the telephone. In no time, he had people !lling several phone lines at all hours listen-ing to his talk/music programs.

Rusty got involved with computers when, while managing his college radio station in the early ‘80s, he developed so"ware on an Apple II for handling station playlists. His professional experience includes work at radio stations in the Los Angeles area, developing so"ware for broadcasters, mul-timedia, and founding a company to put radio and TV stations on the web. It was only natural that eventually Rusty would start his own internet radio station.

Rusty has been collecting records since the mid ‘70s, bought his !rst ambient record in the ‘80s, and latched onto electronic ambient music right away when it started !rst appearing in the early ‘90s. Many of the records in his collection are now out of print and extremely hard to !nd. With the launch of SomaFM in 2000, Rusty’s dream of his own station became a reality.

Elise NordlingMusic Director, Indie Pop Rocks!

Elise Nordling has been the Music Director and DJ for Indie Pop Rocks! on SomaFM since 2001. She came to SomaFM a"er many varied years of experi-ence in the music industry, from record shop girl to editor/reviewer at the now-

defunct Addicted To Noise/SonicNet internet music magazine. In 2007, Elise was awarded “Best DJ: Satellite/Online Radio” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, citing how she is “renowned for her impeccable taste” and that “Indie Pop Rocks! has become required listening on a global scale.” She delights in introducing friends and listeners to new music, and SomaFM provides her with the perfect way to do just that.

Roy BatchelorMusic Director, Boot Liquor

Roy Batchelor stumbled upon the format that comprises Boot Liquor via a circu-itous route. Graduating from high school in the late ‘70s, radio stations through-out the country labeled his beloved music “classic rock” and conspired to play the

same damn 20 songs over and over until he screamed in pain and was forced to !nd a new musical


home. Fortunately, he discovered #e Beat Farmers and, while mining all their various in$uences, realized that “country music” had been given an undeserved bad rap. Boot Liquor is proud to serve up songs about life, death, misery, broken hearts and broken bones.

Shawn BlosserMusic Director, Beat Blender

Shawn Blosser started BeatBlender in the waning days of the dotcom boom of the late 1990’s. Coworkers loved the music he played in his o%ce at work, CDs from his collection by artists such as Bullitnuts, #e Verbrilli Sound, Baby Mammoth,

#ievery Corp, Boards of Canada, and others. In response to their enthusiasm, Shawn set up an o%ce Shoutcast server so they could enjoy his musical selections around the clock. Surprised to see about 30 people connected to his stream, Shawn discovered his o%ce friends had started giving out the stream server IP address to friends and relatives. It was at this point Shawn decided to make the BeatBlender stream o%cially public.

BeatBlender became a regular channel on SomaFM in 2002. All the music on BeatBlender is hand-picked from Shawn’s extensive private collection of CDs.

Tag LoomisMusic Director, Tag’s Trip

Tag’s love of trance and broadcasting goes way back. In the early 1990’s, he spent nights and weekends at a local radio station learning the ropes of broadcasting, and taking a few stabs at DJ’ing at the University of Northern Colorado.

Tag’s Trip was started as a homebrew project in 1999, broadcasting over DSL in his apartment. His love of trance was an evolutionary gradient, beginning with mid-80’s New Wave to pure Industrial. Side-stepping the Techno scene he went straight for Trance. Trance as a genre is hard to de!ne, but for him, its the Deep Progressive and Ethereal sounds that get him moving. Tag’s Trip joined SomaFM in 2004.

In addition to producing Internet radio, Tag pursues a career in streaming media technologies. Tag is most well known for his rewrite of the ubiqutious Shoutcast Server. Now residing back in North-ern Colorado, he spends his non-music time developing streaming media so"ware for Liquid Com-pass. He is married and the proud father of very smart 5 year old daughter.

NityaMusic Director, Sonic Universe

Nitya grew up in a home where jazz music was always playing, and began col-lecting jazz albums at age 12. Most of the music on Sonic Universe comes from Nitya’s personal collection. In addition to his large CD library, he’s developed rela-

tionships with artists who have provided him with rare live soundboard recordings. He attends local jazz festivals (Portland, Vancouver BC) and also regularly attends the Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, Norway. Originally from Minneapolis, Nitya has lived in Seattle for over 30 years.


DJ LucretiaMusic Director, Doomed

Lucretia got her start in radio as a kid in the late 70s, playing punk rock on an underground station. She went on to host a show at the highly-rated college sta-tion KFJC during the late 80s, where she was immersed in the exploding indus-

trial music scene. Her love of music dark and stompy had Lucretia spinning at the top San Francisco goth/industrial clubs all through the 90s, where she came to the attention of SomaFM’s General Manager, Rusty Hodge. A"er her retirement from club DJing, SomaFM invited Lucretia to present her brand of eerie music to Doomed, where she now hosts the scariest music broadcast around.

Michael KMusic Director, Covers

Michael’s interest in covers started at a young age, and like all great things in life, should be attributed to the Simpsons. Sometimes it’s a song that you always thought was the original, only to learn that it too is a cover; other times it’s an

entirely new take on a beloved standard or respun pop tune.

He’s been gathering these little snippets for years and although it’s an anything goes ‘genre,’ the goal is to !nd covers that portray the original in some new light. #e opportunities are endless.

Merin McDonellMarketing and Design Manager

Merin has been involved in SomaFM from its inception, working on logo design, web design, station logos, photography, marketing materials, press materials, and more. Who knew that hours spent in bars and clubs, listening to music and danc-

ing, would actually turn out to be work experience? Merin’s professional experience also includes work for McKinsey & Company, NASA Ames Research Center, and several internet start-ups.

Meghan LoguePodcast Producer and Business Coordinator

Meghan began her career in college radio, eventually becoming the manager for KSFS, the station of San Francisco State University. Now at SomaFM, Meghan is the associate producer for our podcasts and special event programming. Ad-

ditionally, Meghan coordinates incoming music submissions, manages SomaFM’s music library, manages the distribution of supporter premiums, and handles much of the business operations at SomaFM.

About SomaFMsomafm.com/epk.pdf · includes work at radio stations in the Los Angeles area, developing so " ware for broadcasters, mul - timedia, and founding a company to put radio

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